Ramblings of a bald man and his mod pad. And stuff. And getting it on the cheep. And now featuring babies and woody items.

Monday, December 10, 2007

IKEATTACK!

So Ma and Pa Baldman came to Austin for a visit, and asked if they could help make our house look nice. We let em help us with the... fun. First, Julie told my mom they were going to add some glass tiles, leftover from our backsplash, to the unfinished Norbo table we got from IKEA. Now the table matches the rest of the kitchen, and is cooler than painting or staining it. Grrrl power. Wham. Done.

We wanted to have a hanging light over the table, but there wasn't one to begin with, so we couldn't have it hardwired without calling an electrician. Luckily for us, IKEA has plugs at the end of some of their hanging pendant lamps. We picked ours up for 20 bucks, and can't find it online anymore, but there are a bazillion to choose from. Instead of having the light hang from ceiling hooks, and plug it into the wall outlet, we we took a different approach, and Pa brought his 1 inch boring bit with him. We drilled into the ceiling, and plugged the lamp into an outlet in the attic that the vent hood was using. We first plugged the light into this little white box... a contraption called The Lightning Switch.

The Lightning Switch is this wireless transmitter that is basically a remote control for whatever you plug into an outlet. Not as wicked as The Clapper, but the same general idea. I didn't want to have the toggle ON/OFF switch on the wall, so it's tucked under the table. And it doesn't even run on batteries... just fairy dust and magic.

Now Julie and I have light shining down upon us as we eat our Honey Nut Clusters and Cinnamon Life respectively.